This series is based upon a series by Nelson Searcy and the Journy church. This sermon however, is my own.
The Challenge of Obedience
Obediently following Christ is costly
Obediently following Christ is to be prioritized
Obediently following Christ is to be continual
Slide
Good morning.
There was a poll taken recently that asked the question “Whom do you admire enough to call a hero”
Number one in the poll was our new President, Barak Obama.
Number 2 on the list was Jesus Christ.
Now some may think that is pretty good, number 2.
Others may think number 2, Christ should be number 1.
Yes, he should be number one, but I think this poll is actually a good indicator of where the loyalties of the people of America are.
But I am not so interested this morning in the loyalties of America.
I am more interested in the loyalties of those who call themselves followers of Christ.
Where are our loyalties?
What if a poll was taken in the church?
What if you were asked the question, who is the number one person you would follow?
Would Jesus be number 1 on your list, or would you have other people or things overtaking him at times?
Before answering I want you to think about that because this morning we are going to face the Challenge of Obedience
Slide
And about what it means to be an obedient follower of Jesus.
I am sure there are some who think they know exactly what it means but I want you to really think about it because I think many times we don’t really consider the ramifications before we decide to follow Christ.
So, turn with me this morning to Luke 9:57-62 (p. 734)
Slide
We are going to look at some people who indicated that they wanted to be followers of Jesus but they didn’t really have Jesus as number one on their list.
Let’s take a look at them and Jesus’ responses to them this morning.
We are told in verse 9:51 that the time for “him to be taken up to heaven” was approaching so Jesus and the Disciples were beginning to head toward Jerusalem.
Luke 9:57-62
57 As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go."
58 Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."
59 He said to another man, "Follow me."
But the man replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father."
60 Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God."
61 Still another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family."
62 Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God."
Pray
Wow. In reading these verses, it seems that Jesus is pretty harsh with some of these guys.
But I think as we look at and consider these responses and as we realize the reality of who Jesus is and His nature and character, then we begin to understand these responses a bit better and some of the ramifications of obediently following Christ.
As we begin, I think the example of this first response teaches us that
Obediently following Christ is Costly
Slide
Luke 9:57-58
57 As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go."
This man says he is willing to follow Jesus wherever He goes.
This is an easy statement to make without really thinking things through.
So often we want to follow Christ as long as the road is easy and doesn’t cost too much or require too much of me.
But Jesus says to the man, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."
What he is saying is “do you really understand what you are saying?”
You say you are willing to follow but do you realize that following me means
You won’t be eating at the finest restaurants
You won’t be staying at the finest hotels
Why, even the Son of Man has no place to call His own on this earth.
You need to realize that obediently following me is going to be challenging and costly.
You need to really think about that before saying you are willing to follow me.
This is hard isn’t it?
Everyone of us would like the easy road.
But I want to tell you that Christianity is not the easy road.
I believe it to be the far better road to take, but it is certainly not the easy road.
There is a cost to following Christ.
The question is, “Is it worth it?”
Following Christ now means we give up control of our life and put Him in charge
Following Christ now means we obey the things He wants us to do instead of what our sinful nature wants us to do.
John 14:15 - "If you love me, you will obey what I command.
Following Christ now means we don’t become so comfortable on this earth that we aren’t looking forward to being in heaven with the Lord.
We are to consider ourselves strangers on earth just like those who the book of Hebrews say lived by faith.
Hebrews 11:13-16
13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country-a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
Living a life of faith means living a life of obedience. Obedience does not earn our faith, Paul tells us that obedience comes from faith.
He says in Romans 1:5 that he had “received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith.”
Are we living a life of faith? Or
Are we living this life as if there was no life to come?
As if this world were are home?
Are you willing to have Christ number one if that means you and your desires move down the list?
That is what Jesus is saying here.
If you are going to be a follower of mine, realize that it is not just your words that indicate those who are followers, but
real faith produces obedience,
real followers are obedient.
Matthew 16:24-26
24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?
By faith, we sacrifice.
By faith, we take up our cross.
By faith, we sacrifice earthly possessions and prestige
for heavenly treasure and reward.
Obediently following Christ means we recognize the earthly cost and by faith, we accept that cost and follow.
Are you willing to deny yourself earthly pleasures and gains and take up your cross and follow Him?
Obediently following Christ is costly.
In His next response, we also find that
Obediently following Christ is to be Prioritized
Slide
Luke 9:59-60
59 He said to another man, "Follow me."
But the man replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father."
60 Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God."
Wow. This seems kind of harsh.
Doesn’t Jesus have any compassion at all?
It would appear to us, from our reading of it, and applying our cultural customs, that Jesus doesn’t even care about this man or what He is going through.
Cultural understanding
This is where it is important for us to understand culture and also to have a holistic view of Jesus.
First we know that Jesus is a man of compassion.
Throughout the Gospels we see that Jesus was filled with compassion for the people and he healed them and fed them and loved them. (Matthew 9:36; 14:14; 15:32; 20:34; Mark 1:41)
So Jesus was compassionate, so something else must be going on here that we don’t necessarily see.
Second, We need to remember that Jesus is God and realize that He knows what is in a person’s heart. (John 2:24)
There is really no trying to hide our true motives or feelings from Jesus. He knows.
So understanding those 2 things about Jesus, we know that it is not from a lack of compassion, but it is because Jesus knows the motivations of what is going on in this man’s heart.
So if that is the case, what does Jesus know of why this man is saying “first, let me go bury my father?”
This is where it is important to understand the culture we are dealing with here.
Bury them within a day
In the Jewish culture of the day and for many Jews today, when a Jew dies, he is to be buried within 24 hours.
So it is unlikely that this man is out coming to see Jesus during a time when He would be mourning unless he was coming out to have Jesus come and heal his father, because nobody stayed dead when Jesus was around.
Anyway, since his father probably did not just die, one of two things was going on.
Father had not died yet
First his father had not died yet and the man was saying, I will follow you after my father dies.
Or
Father was already dead for a while
His father had died and was already buried but they had a thing which was known as a secondary burial.
They would bury a person and after all the flesh was gone they would remove the bones and place them in an ossuary which would reduce the space needed in a family tomb.
This could take a number of years however for this to occur.
Either way, what this man was saying is I have some things to do now, but I will follow you later.
Jesus says, “let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
He is saying, What you want to do right now is of little value compared to the eternal value of following me and proclaiming the kingdom of God.
Application
What have we prioritized in our life, over obediently following and sharing Christ with others?
Are you putting being an obedient follower of Christ on hold because
Following Christ right now may put a cramp in my style.
First let me go and make a lot of money, and then I will follow.
First let me go and “eat, drink and be merry,” and then I will follow Christ.
Are we prioritizing our own agenda over obediently following Christ?
Are you putting Jesus on hold until you do what you want to do?
Jesus says an obedient follower will make Him a priority.
Finally, we find that not only does obediently following mean we make Christ a priority, but
Obediently Following Christ is to be Continual
Slide
Luke 9:61-62
61 Still another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family."
62 Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God."
Now remember that Jesus knows what is in a man and he knows what is best for us.
In this passage, the man’s request seems absolutely reasonable.
But from Christ’s response to him, we know that Jesus is seeing more than the man is saying.
Jesus is saying, once you have decided to follow me, that it must be continual. You can’t follow for a while and then say, “you know what, I am going to take a little break from following and go back to my old life and then I will follow again.”
Jesus says that to truly be a follower, you need to keep your focus up ahead, not in the past.
That Hebrews verse I read earlier says
Hebrews 11:13b, 15-16a
They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance… (they were looking ahead to their reward) 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. (they could have looked back, but they didn’t )16 Instead, they were longing for a better country-a heavenly one. (they kept looking forward, obediently following the One who called them)
We can’t be waffling back and forth between following Him and following ourselves or others or longing for our former life.
We need to prioritize following Christ continually.
We need to keep looking ahead to our reward.
We need to keep our eyes fixed upon Him, the author and perfecter of our faith.
Some of you may be thinking, wow, following Christ is hard.
It is impossible in fact, apart from letting Christ work in and through you.
But I want to tell you that when we obediently follow Him, when we are willing to count the cost in this earthly life, and prioritize him continually, He puts everything in perspective for us.
When Jesus is our priority, He helps us make wise choices in where to invest our time.
I am going to make a bold statement here
As a Christ follower, your family is not your priority, Christ is.
As a Christ follower, your job is not your priority, Christ is.
As a Christ follower, your ministry is not your priority, Christ is.
But when Christ is our priority, He helps us to properly invest in our family, because he has given us responsibilities within our families and wants us to meet those responsibilities.
When Christ is our priority, he will help us to be a great worker, not a workaholic or a slacker, but someone who works hard and well. He wants us to work. His word tells us that “if a man will not work, He shall not eat.” (2 Thessalonians 3:10)
But He does not want us to depend on our work as if that is what provides for our needs. Christ provides for our needs. Sure, He often uses our jobs as the means of providing for us, but he is Jehovah Jirah, the Lord who provides.
When Christ is our priority, He will help us to serve well. He will help us say yes to what we need to say yes to and no to what we need to say no to.
When Christ is our priority,
we will spend the right amount of time with family,
we will work hard in our jobs and the Lord will provide for us, and
we will have time to serve Him and others in and through the church and in our neighborhoods.
Now, you need to understand that being a true and obedient follower of Christ does not mean that you won’t fail at times.
You will.
Look at the Apostles.
We see them respond to the call of Jesus to follow Him.
Peter and James and John left their job and their business to follow Jesus.
Matthew left his career and followed.
The obeyed the call of the Lord.
But they even failed at times.
They all fled on the night He was betrayed.
Peter denied the Lord 3 times on that night.
But he repented and got back to being an obedient follower of the Lord.
Where are you this morning?
What is the Lord calling you to follow Him in?
Is he calling you to Salvation
Has Christ been calling you to follow Him and to make a decision to receive Him as your Savior, but you have been making excuses.
First let me do what I want.
First let me sin it up for a while.
This is the most important decision of your life. Don’t put it off, because none of us are guaranteed tomorrow, or even this afternoon.
Count the cost and make the decision.
Is He calling you to Prioritize
Maybe you have your priorities messed up lately.
Is Christ calling you to make Him your priority instead of your family, your job, your ministry?
You can only do those things the best when He is your priority.
Is He calling for your continued obedience
You can’t live on your past obedience.
Lord look at what I have done for you in the past.
I left my job
I have given you my money
I have taken the steps you have asked me to take.
Now I am just going to rest in that.
Listen, an obedient follower of Christ continues to follow to the next step He has placed in front of you.
We just had 9 people taking the next step that the Lord placed in front of them, baptism.
There are probably others here who need to take that step, but haven’t because of prioritizing other things.
I would but I might be embarrassed
I would but what will my family think
If you are a believer in Jesus Christ and have received Him as your Savior, submitting to being immerse baptized is your next step of being an obedient follower of Christ.
There are some He is calling to more time with family while others He is calling to more time serving through the church.
What is He calling you to, to continue in your walk with Him as an obedient follower?
If it is family then make that time, schedule it in as you keep your eyes on Christ.
If it is serving, then seize an opportunity here at Hickory as we prepare for 2 services.
If you don’t know what that is, sign up for a slot in our 24 hour prayer vigil.
It is this Friday and this prayer vigil is designed to help us keep our focus on Christ as we move forward with 2 services and pray that the Lord will continue to help use this church and the people of this church to be an example to this community of what it means to be an obedient Christ follower and to share with them the good news of Salvation through Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice.
Whatever your need this morning, then pray to the Lord and take that step as an obedient follower of Christ.
Let’s pray.
